A Birthday Nenene Will Never Forget
by mg78
Summary: It's Nenene's birthday and Maggie went through a lot of trouble planning for her birthday but unfortunately for her everything goes wrong. The final chapter is now up! Thanks to all of you who have this on alerts!
1. Happy Birthday Nenene!

A Birthday Nenene will never forget

chapter 1

It was 9:00 AM in the morning on a windy Saturday. Maggie was much occupied with her one activity besides reading, and was slaving away in the kitchen. On this day, however, she wasn't cooking one of her usual meals - she was baking a chocolate-chocolate chip cake for Nenene's birthday. She knew it was Nenene's favorite. Maggie figured it was the least she could do for the woman who brought so much love and happiness into her life, her lover for the last six months now. It had been a very wonderful six months for the both of them

In Nenene, Maggie found someone who made her feel more like a woman than anyone else, unlike Michelle, who often referred to her as unfeminine. Nenene helped build her confidence and taught her how to be more assertive. It was because of Nenene that she was able to become a bit more social and even slightly more talkative. Her happiness even made its way into her reading too. Since she was no longer brooding and depressed, she felt the need to read more books which related to her current joyful mood. Hemingway's somber writings were gradually abandoned for more upbeat novels. Right now she was reading one such novel, "Tipping the Velvet," which definitely fit her current mood better. When she thought about it, she was amazed at the wonderful transformation that Nenene brought out in her.

Snapping out of her reverie, she grabbed some vanilla frosting and sprinkles for the cake from the pantry. Noticing how much time went by, she also got started on cooking some vegetable dumplings, beef teriyaki, chicken lo-mein, and other things she remembered that Nenene liked.

Nenene had left early that day, much irritated. Her manager had scheduled a busy Saturday for her - an early book signing followed by a radio interview, and a televised book discussion and signing, meaning she would be away for a while on a day when she would have rather spend her time snuggling up to her Maggie and writing a few pages for her new novel. Michelle wasn't in the apartment right now either, which meant she was most likely raiding the nearby bookstore. Her younger sister, Anita, had gone to see Hisami. Maggie was thus alone, which was fine for her right now, since the others would just be an unnecessary distraction. She did most of the cooking in the place, and she kind of preferred to do it by herself.

Maggie was done with most of the food around noon and had already set it out on the table, with the exception of the salad. She went through the fridge and found lettuce, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, but no carrots. Disappointed, she put on her light jacket since it was a little bit windy, locked the door behind her, and went to the store to pick some up. Couldn't have a salad for Nenene without carrots.

Unfortunately for Maggie, ten minutes after she'd left, Michelle and Anita came to the apartment and quickly picked up on the scent.

"What's that smell? It smells good!" Anita said, sniffing at the aroma in the apartment.

"Why, it smells like something between teriyaki and dim-sum dumplings!" Michelle answered with a hungry gleam in her eyes.

As soon as they got to the dining area they were surprised to see all the food spread on the table. Anita couldn't stop staring.

"Wow, Ma-nee really cooked a lot of food! What could the occasion be?" Anita wondered.

"I doubt that she would have cooked it for Nenene-sensei, since she's going to be gone all day, so I think she must have cooked it for us," Michelle decided quickly.

Anita didn't argue with her sister, and they sat down and started to eat everything Maggie had so carefully prepared. Anita was tired from capturing frogs all morning with Hisami, and Michelle had rushed out without any breakfast, so they were hungry enough to eat all the food that was on the table.

"We should thank Maggie for the meal!" Michelle said excitedly yet naively.

Around the time that Michelle and Maggie were having their feast, Maggie was trying to buy carrots in the supermarket but something went wrong. The cashier rang up her ATM card but she couldn't process the transaction.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but the computer shows insufficient funds."

"What? How could that be? It can't be right." Maggie stared blankly at him.

"I don't know, ma'am," the cashier said apologetically. "But that's what the computer is showing." He turned the screen to her.

Maggie took a look at the computer. "I see. I'm sorry then. I'll be going." Maggie was in disbelief. She'd made sure to save some money for Nenene's birthday. There could not have been a worse time to run out of money. She remembered checking her account two days ago and finding 120,000 yen, but now she didn't even have enough for 500 yen worth of carrots? Of course... It was true that hers was a joint account with her sister Michelle, but she couldn't believe that Michelle would take all the money in the account to buy books! She left the grocery store feeling embarrassed. While walking back to the apartment, she thought to herself that things couldn't get any worse. Little did she know that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Michelle and Anita were stuffed after eating all the food that Maggie prepared for Nenene's birthday. There both had their eyes closed and were smiling from ear to ear. The food made up a disappointing day for Anita, who didn't have much luck catching any frogs.

"The food was even better than usual. I love it!" Anita said.

"Yeah, we need to thank Maggie-chan for it!" Michelle replied happily. They didn't have to wait too long to thank her because just a few seconds later, Maggie entered into the place. As she was heading straight to the kitchen to prepare the salad, she saw the dining table filled with empty bowl and plates while Michelle and Anita were sitting there with their bellies full.

"Hey Maggie-chan!" Michelle said.

"Hi, Ma-nee!" Anita said.

But Maggie didn't care one bit for any of their pleasantries; the only thing that mattered to her was that the food was gone.

"Where's the food?" Maggie asked, blinking. There was no way all the food could be gone in such a short time.

"Thanks for the food. It was delicious!" Michelle said happily, full to bursting.

"What!?" Maggie said disbelievingly, quietly at first, but then she glared at her sister and her voice rose dramatically. "You two ate all of the food?!" Maggie screamed, showing an emotional side that didn't come out often. Even though her relationship with Nenene had begun to make her more open about her feelings, Maggie was not much of a screamer nor was she a shouter, but this incident unexpectedly brought it out of her.

"I made the food for Nenene! Don't you know it's her birthday today? You two don't realize how much time and dedication I put into that meal!" Maggie continued to shout, tears were flowing from her eyes.

Most of the time the other two sisters would have started an argument with Maggie, especially hot-tempered Anita, but Maggie's voice had shocked them into silence, and they started to realize what they had done and feel guilty about it, so they let Maggie scream at them all she wanted.

"Now Nenene is going to get angry at me, thanks to you two!" Maggie exclaimed with tears burning her eyes.

Michelle knew she had to do something or else face the wrath and fury of Nenene Sumiregawa, so with some trepidation in her voice she said, "Look Maggie-chan, we'll get some food for you. Don't worry about it! Everything will be just fine. Sensei will never notice."

Maggie wasn't so sure of Michelle's assurance but before she could make her comment, Michelle and Anita had already left the apartment. Their adventure for food and anything else for Nenene's birthday had begun.


	2. Breakfast and lunch any time of the day!

Chapter 2: Breakfast and lunch any time of the day!

Michelle was looking for something to do, either for food or money for food in return. She tried various places, but no one was offering a temporary job. That is, until she ran into a restaurant. When she entered the store she saw a big, rotund dark-skinned man, his coloring reminiscent of chocolate.

"May I take your order?" he said in rough Japanese. There was no doubt that the man was a foreigner from Michelle's point of view, though she was a foreigner herself.

"Oh, I'm not ordering anything, I'm looking for a temporary job, or at least some food in return for some work."

"Some temporary job?" he asked, "Or food?" he added, even more concerned. "What's wrong girl, you homeless?"

"I will be if I don't find some food for my friend's birthday," Michelled answered piteously.

"If yo' this desperate, ain't it a bit late to be thinkin' 'bout this?" he asked.

"My younger sister already had something made, but... my even younger sister ate it all," Michelle lied at the last minute, unwilling to tell this stranger what she had done. "But Maggie-chan blamed both of us."

The man looked at her with disbelief. "Damn girl, I be pissed as shit m'self, though I ain't sure why she blamed you." Though in the back of his mind he was thinking 'Man this girl is seriously bullshittin'! She ate some of teh food herself!'

"Please sir, help me. I don't want to my friend's birthday to be ruined," Michelle said while crying great big crocodile tears for the man's benefit.

"Hush girl, everything will be aight. My name is Leroy Jenkins, I mean Jenkins Leroy. Shit, I keep on fo'gettin' that you say yo' name backwards 'round here," he said, following with a small laugh.

Michelle laughed a little as well, and said "I know that Americans say their name differently from us. Your accent is American, but it's rather unique," Michelle noted.

Leroy just laughed. "Girl, I'm from Mississippi, the Deep South of America! Ah, I get that a lot, bein' a black man in Japan. Do you know about the Deep South?"

Michelle gave him a somewhat displeased stare and told him, "Just because I'm a blonde doesn't mean that I'm stupid. I know about the 'Deep South.'" Truth be told, she'd read a book set there at one time, and visited for at least a couple of days on a particularly memorable case.

Leroy laughed it off and told her, "Look girl, I too belong to a group that has been stereotyped as 'stupid,' so I ain't gonna assume that you're stupid because you're a blonde. Ain't a whole lot of people here in Japan know what the Deep South is."

Hearing that, Michelle returned back to her laid-back nature and giggled then apologized to him.

"I'm so sorry Jenkins-san, I assumed when I shouldn't have. Anyway, I do know what the Deep South is, but I've never been to Mississippi."

The Paper Sisters had once visited a friend from Atlanta and another one from Birmingham for the memorable case.

"Well you ain't missin' much girl. Mississippi is a nice place to visit, but not to live. I can tell you more later but anyways, this is ma' restaurant, Sho' Nuff Chicken n' Waffles. It's the only chicken and waffles place in Tokyo, probably in all of Japan!" he said, following with a chuckle.

The restaurant looked small on the outside but seemed quite spacious inside. The restaurant was decorated with light beige wallpaper. There were pictures and photos displaying various aspects of Southern African-American culture hanging on the left side of the place. There was a regular wooden counter with two cash registers on top of it. At the top of the wall behind the cash register were pictures of the various dishes served in the restaurant. To the right of the place were four green tables seating two and six other tables seating four. The restaurant played American Soul and R&B music from the 60s through the 80s.

"I'm brand new here and I'm six-foot, five inches and two-hundred seventy pounds. Most o' the folk around here are scared of ma' black ass. Look, if you need a quick job, I got one for ya', promotin' ma' business. Ma' wife Sachiko can tell you more. I ain't so good about the details," he said with his strong Southern African-American accent.

"Did I hear you call my name?" A light, delicate voice aired from the back in Japanese, and a small woman entered the room.

"I sure did, honey! I found someone who's willin' ta work fo' us!" He said to her in English, apparently understanding.

Sachiko came out to the main area of the restaurant. She looked like the exact opposite of Leroy. She was barely 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, with dark green hair and amethyst eyes. When she stood next to her husband, her head was barely above his waist.

"Hi, I'm Jenkins Sachiko, how are you doing?"

"I'm Cheung Michelle, and I'm fine thank you."

"Good, good. My husband likely just informed you that we just opened this restaurant, and are in need of a vibrant personality to attract customers. My husband... is not so good at this, and I'm not very remarkable myself, so we thought that you could bring some customers here by wearing that chicken suit at the corner and telling people to come to our restaurant." Despite the flattering beginning to Sachiko's speech, the last part caught somewhere in Michelle's mind. She eyed the chicken suit at the corner, but was hesitant to wear such a ridiculous thing.

"You... really want me to wear that?"

"It's just a one-day thing, Cheung-san," Sachiko reassured her, using her most flattering tone. "If you do a good job not only will we give you some food, we will also give you some money!"

Michelle thought about it. It probably wouldn't hurt too much to wear a chicken suit for one day; more importantly, it couldn't be too hard either.

"O-kay! I'll do it!" Michelle said with her usual perkiness.

"All right! That's the spirit, Cheung-san!" Sachiko replied with apparent enthusiasm.

Michelle put on the chicken suit and went outside to promote the restaurant.

"Bak, bak, bak, bak! Come to Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles, we got the best chicken and waffles in all of Tokyo!"


	3. You Bet Your Sanity!

Chapter 3: You Bet Your Sanity!

Anita was a quick and bright girl who can come up with ideas in a minute but for some reason she couldn't think of anything to help get some food for Nenene's birthday. She thought that maybe her girlfriend Hisami might help her out on her predicament, so she went to Hisami's house hoping that Hisami would be there. Unfortunately for her she wasn't, and her mother told Anita that Hisami went to Ashiti TV station for an interview on her latest book. Knowing that she didn't have much time to spare she went straight to the station hoping to find her. When she got to the station entrance they wouldn't let her go to the studio where Hisami was being interviewed, so she had to find another way. She saw a long line of people who were trying to be contestants for a game show. That gave her an idea - she could stand in the line pretending to be one of the contestants and when none of the guards were paying attention, she could sneak in to see Hisami.

Anita joined the line thinking it wouldn't be too hard to sneak by and go to the studio that Hisami was in. However it wasn't long after she joined in the line that the executive producer and his producers came out to survey the line for potential contestants. The game show only took four contestants per show and there were over 100 people in the line waiting. Most of the people waiting in the line were doing crazy things to impress the producers so that they could be picked. Somehow Anita didn't had a good feeling about it, and judging by the way the people were acting in line, she had a feeling that the game show was silly, ridiculous and humiliating. Anita was a girl who had a lot of pride and was very conscious of her self-appearance, thus being in that type of game show was not cool with her. What she didn't know at the time was that she was the only young teenager in the group, which made her stand out from the crowd.

While scanning through the crowds, one of the producers noticed Anita because of her youth and thought that she would make a good contestant. "Hey Takemashi-san, I think I found a contestant!" he exclaimed as executive producer Fukimoto Takemashi was examining other potential contestants ten feet away.

Takemashi was in no hurry to examine the producer's pick, thinking that it was just an ordinary potential candidate. When he finally got to Anita, he was surprised that someone so young would want to be one of the contestants.

"Well this is a little one all right," he said with a small smirk on his face.

"I'm not little! I'm fourteen-years old, you jerk!"

Takemashi was taken back a little by her feistiness but it only made her more of a potential candidate in his mind. "I think we found one of our contestants," he said. "Looks like you might have a chance of being at least one million yen richer!"

When she heard that she would win one million yen it made any doubts of participating in the game show go away. It would be more than enough to get a birthday gift for Nenene if she wins so she enthusiastically agreed to be a contestant for the game show.

She and three other candidates followed the producers to a small green room in the studio. The executive producer told them that he would be back in ten minutes. Those ten minutes seemed like an eternity to Anita, who was lost in her thoughts about being in the show. _'I hope I'm doing the right thing being here. I hope no one watch this.'_

Then the executive producer finally returned and addressed the selected contestants.

"Welcome to Majide, the craziest game show in Japan."

Now Anita was really surprised. _'Oh no, not Majide! Of all the games shows I had to be on... now I so wish that I was not here!'_

Takemashi went over the legalities to the contestants so that they wouldn't be able to take any legal action against the show in case anything went wrong.

"Unless the injuries received on the show are fatal, any injuries incurred on the show will not be paid for or reimbursed in any way by the show or by Ashiti TV. If you object to this, you can freely go now."

This was Anita's moment to leave but the image of one million yen was in her mind, so she decided to stay, thinking it wouldn't be so bad. She was about to find out how wrong she was…


	4. Maggie Comes to the Rescue

Chapter 4: Maggie Comes To The Rescue.

While Michelle and Anita were finding ways to get food for Nenene's birthday, Maggie was just walking around the city, moping about what just happened and what could happen if Nenene found out.

"Oh my God, what am I going to do? Nenene will be totally mad at me. Then she would probably break up with me!" When that thought came in her mind she burst into tears, and since the wind had picked up some speed, the tears were steaming off her face. While she was still walking down the street, she heard a distressed woman screaming.

"Help, help! Somebody just stole my purse!" an old woman frantically cried. Her purse got stolen by a thin young man who couldn't be any older than 21. As soon as Maggie heard the scream, she ran as quickly as she could to the area. While she was running to the scene, she spotted a man who was running towards her, carrying a purse. She figured that must be him, however as soon as she spotted him, he spotted her as well. The thief probably figured out that Maggie was there to stop him but he wasn't going to let that happen, so he quickly pulled out his gun. Luckily for Maggie, she was near a newsstand so she quickly grabbed a magazine from off the shelf and prepared for the worst.

Not surprisingly, the man pulled the trigger and the bullet sped towards Maggie's head. With Maggie's cat-like reflexes and her extraordinary defensive Paper Magic skills, she blocked the bullet using the magazine. It stopped only a few inches from her face.

For a while the man thought that the bullet went through the magazine and hit Maggie, but he was shocked to see Maggie still alive after she dropped the magazine and showed her face. He realized what he was dealing with and said out loud, "Oh my God, you're a Paper Master!"

"Yes I am," Maggie responded calmly.

The amazement quickly faded and the thief replied to Maggie rather arrogantly, "Well that don't mean shit to me. I doubt you can catch me!" After he said that, he started to run away from Maggie as fast as he could with the purse still in his possession. Using the same magazine, Maggie created a leopard "puppet" to chase after the thief.

However, the newsstand clerk could care less about her heroic actions. "Hey I don't care if you're the Toilet Paper Master, I want you to pay for that magazine you've just destroyed!"

Maggie couldn't believe that he was more concerned about her not paying for the magazine but she told him immediately, "I will pay you back later."

The clerk didn't like her answer so he quickly approached Maggie and in a threatening manner told her, "You're going to pay for the magazine right now, toots, or I'm gonna make you." He foolishly followed up with a small push to Maggie's chest.

Maggie was not the confrontational type but she wasn't going to let him intimidate her, so she grabbed him by his shirt with one of her hands and picked him up about a foot above the ground. She harshly growled at him, "I told you I will pay you later, do you understand?"

The now-nervous clerk reluctantly nodded his head in agreement. Maggie dropped him and started to chase after the criminal. The leopard puppet was already ahead by a good block and was about half a block close to the thief. On the next block there was a small bridge for a driveway. It was about 18 feet high and could be fatal if one jumped over the bridge, but the thief jumped over it nevertheless, thinking that the puppet wouldn't be able to get him. He landed on his feet but stumbled a bit. Miraculously, he didn't get seriously hurt but the pain he got from the landing lingered for a while, so he was limping while still trying to evade the puppet.

Unfortunately for him, the puppet jumped over the bridge as well and was able to "sense" where the criminal was at. That could be thanks in part to Maggie spending time with Yomiko in improving her Paper Magic skills after her battle with Sonny Wong. The puppet didn't have far to go to catch the thief after the jump. Maggie knew where the criminal and the puppet were since she was close enough to see them jump over the bridge. It took her a while to get there but when she arrived she saw the puppet on top of the thief, leaving him incapable of escaping. Maggie had the man turn over to lie on his chest and put both of his arms behind his back. She then had the puppet turn into a pair of handcuffs and placed them on the man while taking the purse away from him.

Maggie held the thief in position until the cops arrived. They were Sergeant Suzushiro and Sergeant Kikukawa, two cops who regularly worked in this district of Tokyo and were familiar with Maggie. In the past, Maggie and her sisters had helped both sergeants in capturing law-breakers. Riding along with them was the old woman who had her purse stolen.

"Thanks Maggie-san, we've been trying to catch him for a while." Sgt. Suzushiro said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's been known to break into homes and steal purses from many old ladies."

"Well you're welcome, anything to make Tokyo safer," Maggie replied with her usual blush.

When Maggie spotted the old woman, she quickly walked up to her and gave her the purse.

"Here's your purse. Everything should be intact. You can check it yourself."

"Oh, I'm sure everything is in there. Anyway, before the incident, I saw you crying. What happened?"

The birthday came back into Maggie's mind and tears were starting to form again.

"I planned a birthday party for someone special in my life and it all went wrong. My sisters ate all the food, including the cake, and I have no money to buy more food," Maggie answered as tears started to run down her face.

"Oh my, that's so sad. I wish I can give you some money to help you buy all the food again, but I have no money since I used it all to get some groceries. However, I do have this."

The old lady dug into her grocery bag and took out a chocolate-frosted cupcake. Maggie didn't know whether to laugh or get angry when she saw it.

"That's all I can give you."

"That's not a problem. Thank you anyway," Maggie said with her usual modesty. Unlike Anita, she was always respectful of other people's feelings. After that, she left the scene and headed back to apartment, cupcake in hand, knowing full well that she would have to do some serious explaining to Nenene.


	5. As the Day Folds

Chapter 5: As the Day Folds

Author's Note: Here are some Japanese terminology that are not common to us Westerners:

Tsundere – (According to Wikipedia) is a Japanese concept of a character archetype which describes a person with a conceited, irritable, and/or violent personality that suddenly becomes modest and loving when triggered by some sort of cause (such as being alone with someone). It can also describe a contradictory personality which is good-willed on the inside, but with a harsh attitude on the outside. You don't have to look to far for an example, Nenene could be considered as one.

Eroge – EROtic GamE. In Japanese it would be EROchikku GEmu.

Doujinshi (also know as doujin) – Japanese equivalent to a 'clique' or better yet a circle (like the _Sewing Circle_). It is often used to refer to unofficial self-published works, which includes manga, anime, fan guides, video games, etc.

Hentai – Meaning 'pervert.'

Otokoyaku - Meaning 'male role.'

Tsuki - Meaning 'moon.'

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"Bak, bak, bak, bak! Come to Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles!" Michelle called out earnestly to attract customers to the restaurant; however there was this one old guy who didn't seem to appreciate her efforts.

"Why don't you go lay an egg and shut up!" He grumbled with his elder gravely voice. However his rudeness didn't have any emotional effect on Michelle due to her carefree nature. She just shrugged her shoulders and continued on with the promotion.

It had been an hour since Michelle donned the chicken suit and acted like a chicken while trying to attract people to the restaurant. All she got for her hard effort were laughs, snickers, and a few other heckles besides the one from the cranky old man. Only one person patronized the restaurant; unfortunately, things didn't turn out quite so well for him. Leroy and Sachiko had to call an ambulance when the customer fell into a sugar coma after he had Wings n' Waffles with heavy syrup, a deep fried Twinkie with extra icing, and a 40-ounce extra sweet iced tea. They later found out that the man had Type 2 diabetes. Luckily, the man survived, due in part to former nurse Sachiko's medical training.

Even though it was cold and windy outside, Michelle was still sweating inside the suit, so when Sachiko called her in and told her to take off the suit, she was very much relieved. After taking off the suit, Michelle did a quick check and saw that her bra and panties were drenched with her own sweat. The suit made Michelle so sweaty and smelly that Sachiko was able to smell her from ten feet away. Sachiko made a suggestion to Michelle.

"Michelle-san, I think you need to take a bath."

"No kidding! I was happy to get out of that silly suit, but I don't have anything else to put on… and where can I take my bath? I don't see a bath tub or a shower around here."

"We actually live upstairs, so you can use our bath tub. While you take your bath, I'll wash your clothes. They should be ready when you're done bathing."

"Thanks a lot, Sachiko-san."

After she guided Michelle to the bathroom and put her clothes in the washer, Sachiko returned to the restaurant downstairs and sat next to her husband at the cash register.

"Looks like the chicken suit act didn't exactly worked as planned," Sachiko sighed with disappointment.

"It sure didn't, Sachiko baby. Guess we hafta think of sumthin' else," Leroy replied with the same tone of disappointment. "Is Michelle taking a shower now?"

"Yes, Leroy. Actually, she's taking a bath since I suggested that to her. Also, I just put her clothes in the washing machine."

"Takin' a bath? Why not just take a shower?"

"Well it would give me time to wash and dry her clothes, plus she needs the relaxation after walking around all that time in that ridiculous chicken suit. How are the kids doing?"

"Tyrone is cleaning the kitchen and Rei is doing her homework."

The couple had two children, Tyrone and Rei. They helped out in the business by doing things like cleaning and taking customers' orders. Leroy's mind went back to the business and addressed his concerns to Sachiko.

"It's been over a month and we haven't gotten many customers. I've already lost money for this month and I'm having a hard time making ends meet with our house upstairs. We gotta get some butts in here!"

"I know, honey. I can still pick up some part-time work in the hospital if that would help?"

"Nah baby, I don't think you need to do that yet, but keep dat thought in yo' head. I just don't wanna go back to working fo' someone else."

Sachiko didn't immediately say anything after that, but instead, she put her left arm around his waist and quietly comforted him. A few minutes later, she remembered Michelle's clothes and went upstairs to move them from the washing machine to the dryer. When the clothes were finally dry, she placed them near the bathroom door and called out to Michelle about them. She went back downstairs and sat with Leroy again.

"Anybody else came?"

"Yeah this one stupid teen came in and told me that ma' restaurant was more ridiculous than Hooters. So I went after dat brat but he was fast and I couldn't catch his stupid ass," he said angrily. "If I had ma' hand on him, I wooda' knocked his ass out!"

"Don't let that get to you, honey . . . you don't need to add any more stress to your hypertension."

"That's true Sachiko-baby, you're right about that. Shit, I gotta go to the bathroom! Be right back, baby."

Leroy got up abruptly and left. Sachiko tried to tell him that Michelle was still in the bathroom, but he was already out of earshot. When he got to the upstairs hallway, he saw Michelle changing into her clothes. Apparently it didn't occur to ditzy woman that she should be changing her clothes in the bathroom instead. Luckily for Michelle, she already had on her bra and panties and was just about to put on her pants when Leroy saw her. When he did see her he was a bit shocked at first but then he began to seriously blush. His dark brown face was beginning to show some red and there was a trickle of blood oozing from his nose. Michelle saw Leroy but wasn't disturbed at all by his presence; she was not very shy about her body. After a few seconds of that awkward situation, Leroy finally spoke up.

"E-excuse me, b-but I needa' go to ta' bathroom."

Unfazed by the situation, Michelle calmly told him, "Oh sure, go right ahead. Sorry if I'm in your way."

Leroy quickly went into the bathroom and hastily cleaned off the blood from his nose. While he was looking in the mirror, he was replaying the image of Michelle's barely-clothed body while his conscience was screaming at him.

'_OK Leroy, stop thinking of Michelle like that! You're a married man with children! If Sachiko found out that you got a nosebleed from it, she would kill you, just like when she found your hentai videos and eroge video game collection!' _

At the same time, his mind was also replaying the incident he had with the boy who compared his restaurant to Hooters. Somehow while all that chaos was going on in his mind, an idea came to Leroy, leaving a big grin on his face…

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"Ohayo and welcome to Majide! I'm your host Matsumoto Hamada! And we have four contestants here today battling each other for the grand prize of one million yen!"

The crowd applauded after his statement and continued to do so as the red APPLAUSE sign at the top of the stage kept flashing. Hamada continued on, shifting his focus to the contestants.

"Are you guys ready for the first game?"

All but Anita shouted their agreement joyfully while Anita weakly said 'yeah.' Hamada did noticed but decided not to bring it to attention.

"Cool, so let's get ready!"

As with 98% of Japanese game shows, the first game in Majide was a bizarre one. It was called the Atomic Wedgie and the goal of the game was for the contestants to reach a buzzer three feet away while having a wedgie applied to them. Each near-naked contestant wore super-elastic underwear with a hoist attached to the back of the waistband, which can stretch it as long as five feet. In a token nod to modesty, Anita and another female contestant were both wearing bras. In addition to the rigged underwear, the contestants also had to wear boots that contained 20 pounds of lead, making it more difficult to reach the buzzer.

Hamada went over the rules with the contestants and all it did was make Anita wearier about the game. She tried to pep talk herself, trying to not to think about the dreariness of it.

'_OK Anita, you're not a chicken, it won't be as bad as it look. You can do this. If you can take on the British Library then you can take on this. Anita, you're a…'_

"On your mark, get set, go!"

Anita never finished her train of thought because Hamada had just given them the green light. A machine began to stretch the contestants' underwear. They struggled against the impending wedgies, hampered additionally by their weighted boots. However, it seemed that Anita struggled the least of all since she was already halfway to the buzzer while the other contestants haven't even advanced a foot. She would have moved faster had they would have tightened her bootlaces correctly. Her feet nearly came out of the boots a few times during the game, so she had to tread carefully. Hamada and everyone else were amazed that this little girl was clearly beating the other contestants in a game that relied on pain tolerance, endurance, and strength. They had no idea that they weren't dealing with an ordinary little girl.

While Anita was reaching for the buzzer, the underwear started to tighten around her skin, causing a lot of pain around her groin. Anita had a pretty high pain threshold but this was starting to hurt her. She was using every muscle available just to reach the buzzer. About thirty seconds later her right hand was finally able to reach the buzzer. She was the winner by a distant foot. Anita was excited and gave the victory sign to but she forgot that her bootlaces were loose and ten seconds after she reached the buzzer, the highly tensioned underwear pulled her out of her boots and slingshot her halfway across the stage. Fortunately, Anita landed on her back in a pool from another game. The audience was laughing hysterically at the spectacle. Anita crawled out of the pool and when she stood up, the audience had an interesting reaction. Some of them were literally in convulsion, while others had nosebleeds. Anita was dumbfounded at what was going on.

"What's wrong with you people? Why are you laughing so hard? And what's with the nosebleeds and covering up your faces?"

Hamada was surprised that Anita wasn't aware of her situation so he pointed it out to her.

"Look below, little girl, you'll see your answer," he said with a huge grin while covering up his nose with his other hand.

Anita looked and saw that she was naked below the waist! She became extremely embarrassed and immediately blushed a deep crimson red. Embarrassed and now infuriated, she covered her private areas with her hands and angrily lashed out at the crowd, "Hentai!"

And that was just the first game of the show…

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Leroy knew he had something that would bring customers in to the restaurant so when he got out of the bathroom, he immediately went downstairs and saw Michelle sitting next to Sachiko at the counter. Michelle was wearing a regular pair of jeans and also wearing a tight t-shirt that left little to the imagination. Now Leroy was sure his idea was going to work, so he came up to Michelle and Sachiko and told them about it.

"Hey ladies, I think I got an idea that will finally bring customers here, and it won't require any chicken suits!"

Sachiko and Michelle raised their eyebrows and asked him to elaborate on his idea.

"Another one of your genius marketing ploys, Leroy? I'm still mad at you for dressing Tyrone up as a gangsta rapper. The Tokyo Police Department arrested him and nearly pressed charges!"

That was an incident that would never leave Sachiko's mind. The previous week, Leroy understood the rap craze going on in Japan and since his son was into it, he had him dress up as a gangsta rapper and had him rap about Sho' Nuff's Chicken outside the restaurant. It actually worked and quite a few customers came into the restaurant, among them Officers Suzushiro and Kikuwara. They mistook the BB gun in his pocket as a real weapon so they had him arrested. Officer Suzushiro was also trying to arrest him for butchering the Japanese language with his rapping, which was ironic because it came from Suzushiro, the Queen of Malapropisms. Eventually all charges were dropped but it took a lot of pleading from Sachiko and Leroy, and Tyrone had to sit in juvenile jail in the meantime.

"Nah baby, it has nothin' to do wit' tha' kids, but it has sumthin' ta' do wit' Michelle," he replied with a sly grin on his face, "and all she needs is to put on a pair of shorts."

"A pair of shorts, what for? It's cold out there!" Sachiko exclaimed in surprise.

"No honey, she won't go outside but she'll be standing in front of the window at tha' front o' teh restaurant."

Sachiko knew where this was going and she didn't like it one bit. "You want to exploit Michelle's figure and make her a sex object so you can sell some chicken? This ain't Hooters!"

"Yeah, but you don't see Hooters in tha' red do ya?" Leroy shouted back at her. "We tried yo' chicken suit idea but it ain't workin', so now we are trying something that will work!"

"How do you know it's going to work? Not everybody in Japan is a hentai fanboy!"

"Yeah, well it worked for Hooters, so I'm sure it's gonna work fo' us! And from all them doujins and eroges I've seen from this country, I think 90% of this country is made up of hentai fanboys!"

While Leroy and Sachiko were continuing their bickering, Michelle was trying to say her piece in the argument but was virtually ignored until she screamed to get their attention.

"EXCUSE ME!" Now she finally got their attention. "I just want to say I have no problem wearing a t-shirt and shorts in order to promote the restaurant, as long as it's not too vulgar," she said with a smile on her face.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Please think about it very carefully." Sachiko cautioned.

"You heard what tha' girl said, so just give her your pair of shorts since you both basically have the same size."

As much of a tsundere Sachiko was she was still a Japanese woman and was taught to be obedient to her husband, so she reluctantly agreed to get Michelle a pair of shorts.

As Sachiko went upstairs, Michelle said, "Well, I know that I have a nice figure and that I get a lot of looks from both men and women, so my philosophy is 'If you have it then use it!'" As Michelle spoke, she ditzily showed off her figure.

"Now that's the spirit! Tyrone, bring me yo' cardboard! I needa use it fo' display."

"But papa, I was going to use it for my science project!" Tyrone complained.

"Boy, did you hear what I said? I said bring me tha' cardboard fo' I smack ya upside tha' head! I'll buy ya another one."

"Okay . . . jerk," Tyrone answered, mumbling the word 'jerk' under his breath so that Leroy couldn't hear it.

Leroy shifted his focus to Michelle. "Why don't you go upstairs so that Sachiko won't have to bring it down here?"

"Okay." Michelle replied and headed upstairs.

About five minutes later, Michelle came down wearing a pair of blue shorts skimpy enough to reveal most of her beautiful legs, along with her tight white t-shirt detailing her busty chest. When Leroy saw her, he started to get a nosebleed, which Sachiko noticed. Tyrone was no better. He didn't get a nosebleed but he was grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the display that Michelle was inadvertently giving him. He was smacked back into reality by his father, who slapped the back of his head.

"Boy, stop thinkin' those dirty thoughts," he reprimanded Tyrone hypocritically.

"But papa, your nose is bleeding!"

"Hush up! Go and make some more chicken, we're gonna have a busy day," he replied with a smile on his face. Tyrone knew how to work the fryer even though he was not of legal age to do so, but Leroy was not new to skirting child labor laws.

Sachiko, was by then full of anger, whispered to Leroy, "Don't bother coming to bed tonight, you're gonna sleep on the couch." Leroy was speechless - a rare event.

At the front of the restaurant and behind the window stood Michelle in a flirty pose, holding a plate of chicken breasts underneath her ample chest, as specified by Leroy. A cardboard sign displayed above her stated, 'IF THESE BREASTS MAKE YOUR MOUTH WATER THEN COME INSIDE AND SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THEM!' In less than 20 minutes later, the restaurant was packed, with Leroy and Sachiko working non-stop at the cash register while Tyrone cooked in the kitchen and Rei was busy waitressing, once again skirting child labor laws. All of the tables in the restaurant were full.

Knowing that they didn't need to do any more promotion for the restaurant and needing more hands for waitressing, Leroy shouted to Michelle, "Michelle-san, you can stop holding the plate and give Rei a hand. She's quite busy taking orders and delivering food to the customers."

"O-Kay. No problem."

Just like that, she quickly went from being the store display to being a waitress. Michelle found herself busy taking orders and delivering the food to customers. Nothing uneventful happened until an hour and a half later when Michelle took orders from three guys sitting at one of the tables.

"Welcome to Sho' Nuff's Chicken and Waffles, what would you like to order?"

"We would like to have that juicy pair of breasts and those honeybun biscuits of yours."

"No problem, two chicken breasts and two honey . . . AAAHHH!" She screamed out loud in shock as one guy put his hands on her breasts and started to grope them while another guy started to squeeze her butt.

"I'm more interested in sinking my teeth in that soft and juicy breast you're carrying," said the first creep.

"And I'm more interested in sinking my teeth into your firm and delicious honey buns," leered the other pervert.

The third guy wasn't directly involved but instead took pictures from his cell phone of his friends molesting Michelle. As soon as Leroy saw this incident, he quickly left the counter and went straight to the men, grabbing the first two creeps by their necks with his big hands, holding them about half a foot from the ground. He didn't hide his anger from his usually jolly face as he furiously looked at the man who had groped Michelle's breasts.

"What tha' fuck y'all doing ta' my waitress?"

"W-w-we were just playing with her, r-right boys?" the guy stuttered to the other two fearfully. Had they not used the bathroom before they sat down to order, they would have peed in their pants, so terrified they were. The three knew they wouldn't have a chance against a 270 pound, 6'5'' man who was also unknown to them as an ex-Marine. The third guy's face paled when Leroy shifted his focus to him. Leroy gave them a stern warning.

"If I eva' see any of you mutha' fuckas' in here again I'm gonna put ma' foot up all y'all asses, you understand?!" As he yelled at the three, they started shaking and sweating nervously. All three of them responded by fearfully nodding in agreement.

"Now get tha' fuck outta here!"

The creeps quickly ran out of the restaurant. After that, Leroy checked up on Michelle. The patrons in the restaurant were stunned at what they saw.

"Are you all right, Michelle-san?"

"Yes," she said in a barely audible tone. It was quite evident that she was very disturbed from the incident since she couldn't look at Leroy when she answered and was trembling a bit.

"You look like you're shaken up. Sachiko, take her to Rei's room upstairs and let her relax a bit."

Sachiko nodded in agreement and escorted Michelle upstairs. At Rei's room, she immediately sat down on the bed and said nothing, keeping her head down.

Sachiko saw that Michelle was still traumatized, so she tried to talk to her.

"Michelle-san, I know that you're not okay. Please talk to me."

Michelle didn't reply, still keeping her head down, so Sachiko pressed on.

"Look, you can't keep this to yourself. It won't do you any good."

Michelle finally spoke to Sachiko and told her, "Thanks Sachiko-san, but please let me be by myself right now. I'm not ready to talk."

Sachiko didn't want to leave her in her current state but she also knew it wouldn't be wise to push her further. She figured it would be best if Michelle talked to her when she was ready.

"I'm going back downstairs but come and get me if you need anything."

With that, Sachiko closed the door and head back to the restaurant. As soon as she was sure that Sachiko left, Michelle put her hands on her face and cried her heart out.

When Sachiko returned to the restaurant, she saw her husband busy at the cash register. Sachiko would have been thankful for what Leroy did had he done one other important thing.

"You should have called the cops on them. I'm sure this is not the first time they probably did something like this since they seemed so calm until you got there."

"Shit, I fo'got about that. I got so upset that it slipped ma' mind."

Another customer overheard their conversation and told them, "I took pictures of all three of them assaulting Michelle. I can give it to you guys and you can show it to the police."

"Really? Thanks! We got a computer and a USB cable so you can plug in and we can get it that way." Leroy said excitedly.

When they got a copy of the pictures, they called the police and told them about the incident and emailed them the photos. The police examined them and recognized the two men who sexually assaulted Michelle. It turned out that Sachiko was right, they had been indicted in the past for sexually harassing another woman, but although they went to trial, they won the case. It was rumored that the father of the guy who squeezed Michelle's butt was very rich and was influential in the justice system, suspected of paying off the judge and a few of the jury members in the trial.

When Sachiko heard all of that information from the phone, it made her even more upset about the incident. She was already upset with her husband, knowing that something like this would happen. When the flow of customers finally slowed down, Sachiko ordered Leroy into the kitchen so that they could have a talk. She also told Tyrone to watch the restaurant while they were away.

"You don't know how much I want to kill you right now, Leroy!"

"Look, I didn't think such a thing would happen to Michelle-san."

"I knew it would happen but you insisted on carrying on with your idea."

"But Michelle-san agreed to it as well, so don't be blamin' all of this on me."

"That's true, but whose idea was it? Something worse could have happened to Michelle."

"You actin' like she's Rei's age. She's a grown-ass girl. She can make her own decisions."

They kept on arguing until Tyrone told them that another customer just came in. For the rest of the time they worked at the restaurant, they didn't say anything to each other.

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"Now wasn't that an interesting first game?" Hamada announced to the audience while giving a devilish smirk to Anita. Anita gave him a cold stare in return. Hamada continued, "The next game is the Treadmill from Hell. The contestant has to run on a huge treadmill going at the speed of 10 miles per hour, raised at a 40 degree angle, while jumping over barb-wired hurdles and at the same time dodging various objects thrown at them. The contestant must reach the pad at the top of the treadmill. Now if the contestant trips or falls, he or she will fall into a pool of scorching hot water at the bottom of the treadmill. Don't worry King-san, you won't lose your bottom on this one!" Everybody was laughing after he said that, but Anita's face was furiously red and if she had the opportunity, she would have beaten the living hell out of Hamada.

Anita was third in line for the treadmill, which she thought was a good thing since she could learn from the first two. The first contestant was able to jump over the first hurdle without trouble and was able to deal with the thrown objects even though one of them, a watermelon, hit her in the chest. She ran into a problem when she got near the second hurdle, tripping on her own shoelace and tumbling down to the pool of hot water. As soon as she landed in the pool, she frantically jumped of it and headed straight to a huge bucket of ice to cool herself down.

The next contestant was a man in his 40s who didn't appear to be in the best shape to deal with such a game. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't even clear the first hurdle and ended up in the pool. He too immediately climbed out and headed straight to the bucket of ice. After seeing what happened to the first two contestants, Anita started praying to God, hoping she survives the game show.

Meanwhile, Hisami just finished up an interview about her latest book. The interview was boring, as the interviewer asked her the same sort of questions she had answered numerous times previously. She felt like her Saturday afternoon was being wasted, but being the young professional that she was, she remained respectful to the interviewer.

On her way out of the studio, Hisami saw a game show playing on of the TVs hanging from the ceiling in the hallway. It was Majide and when she saw a vague glimpse of a young pink-haired girl on TV she immediately stopped dead in her tracks. When she got a close-up look of the girl, she was surprised to see Anita.

"Oh my, it's Anita-chan!"

She quickly found one of the studio personnel and asked him, "Excuse me, sir, but can you show me where the Majide show is taped?"

"I don't know if they would allow you inside," he replied.

Hisami wasn't going to let that stop her so she begged the man to tell her where it was. "Please mister, I really, really need to be there."

The man gave in and told her, "OK, it's two studios down on the left. I'll come with you so that you can get in."

Hisami got excited and said "Oh, thank you!"

Meanwhile at Majide, it was Anita's turn to try to reach the top. The treadmill started running and she was able to jump over the first barb wire without any difficulty. Then as she was halfway to the top, show staffers started to throw objects at Anita. Anita dodged a baseball glove and jumped over a football that was aimed at her legs.

Hamada was amazed at how Anita was able to overcome the obstacles without much trouble, so he told one of the staff members to double the treadmill's speed and to throw everything they got at her. Anita noticed the speed increase and started to run faster. She was getting tired but she didn't want to show it. While she was running towards the third and final hurdle, the staffers threw everything they had at her, which literally included the kitchen sink, which Anita was able to jump over. During that time, Hisami was seated near the front row and she watched her lover running on the treadmill. Along with the rest of the audience, she was amazed at how Anita was able to dodge the objects and keep up with the speedy treadmill, but at the same time she was scared that Anita might get seriously hurt.

Anita jumped over the last hurdle and had two more feet to go before reaching the top. The staffers increased the treadmill's speed to 25 miles per hour, but Anita wasn't going to let that deter her from finishing the game. She was getting tired and started to breathe heavily, with her lungs burning. When she came within an inch from the top it looked like she was finish, but one of the staffers threw a fastball directly at her left cheekbone.

"Ani-chan!" Hisami inadvertently screamed when she saw the fastball's impact.

The fastball caught Anita off-guard and it was too quick for her to block it. The hit made her fall and she tumbled all the way to the hot pool, scrambling out of it as soon as she could and ran to the bucket of ice. Her face was bruised from the fastball's impact and the tumble down the treadmill, and her right calf had a cut from the barbed wire. She was dead tired and mad as hell, and didn't try to cover it up when Hamada came to interview her.

"Close but not enough. How does it feel to have victory within your grasp, only to have it snatched away from you?" Hamada tried to not sound arrogant, but his smirk betrayed the true intention of his message and Anita saw it.

"I'll tell you what would make me feel better. Me kicking yours and your staff's asses, you sadistic son-of-a…"

Hamada immediately pulled the microphone away from Anita and said, "Well this would be a good time take our commercial break. Don't go away, we have more games in store for you as our contestants try to win one million yen!"

Hisami saw Anita in pain and started to cry while thinking to herself _'I hope she is all right!'_

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Nenene couldn't wait to get her book signing over and done with. She was already tired from the radio interview even though the talkshow host asked nothing but softball questions. Aside from the book signing, she had already done a discussion about her latest book, which would be televised, albeit on a cable channel that nobody watched. Her latest book was called 'Without Her' and it had already become her best selling novel of all time in Japan, the rest of East Asia, Europe, and the United States. It had also become her most controversial novel, due to the fact that there were no males in the story and all the couples in the novel were lesbians. When asked why she had chosen to write such a book, she simply said she wanted to do something different. Needless to say, the novel did not help quash rumors about her sexuality.

Everybody in the writing circle knew that Nenene had never dated a man although most of her novels were heterosexually romantic, and most of the people knew that she and Yomiko Readman were very close, so the rumors of her sexuality began. First the rumors had linked Nenene to her buddy Yomiko. Then when the Paper Sisters moved in, she was linked to Michelle Cheung, which was a delight to many males who fantasized about 'hawt lesbian sex' between the two. When she helped Nancy Makuhari write her autobiography, people thought that Nancy was her secret lover. However, when the book came out, almost everybody in the writing circle agreed that it had to be Maggie Mui since the lead character in the story, Naomi, was tall, strong, quiet, and butch. Naomi's lover was Ruka, a feminine yet assertive, confident and strong-willed woman, just like Nenene.

While she was signing books, she ran into a few well-known people. One of them was Miyuki Kurugi, the leading otokoyaku star of the Tsuki troupe in the Takarazuka Revue, who was a huge fan of Nenene's works and really liked her latest book.

"Kurugi Miyuki! It's nice to see you again!"

"Same here, sensei. You know how much of a big fan I am of your writings, so I had to come and get my book autographed."

"No problem, one signature for you wouldn't hurt Kurugi-san."

"Well not just my book, all the others as well for all the actresses in the other troupes as well," Miyuki replied as she brought out a flatbed truck loaded with around sixty books. Nenene's eyes nearly popped out of her glasses when she saw this.

"You want me to sign all those books?" Nenene questioned as irritation was starting to appear on her face.

"For all the actresses in our company, if you could. We'll pay you double for each book!" Miyuki explained a bit nervously, knowing full well the explosiveness of Nenene's anger.

Nenene needed the money after Michelle had wrecked her car while driving to a Harry Potter convention, and since Miyuki was a good friend of hers, she reluctantly agreed to it.

After signing her autograph in all the books, she took a short break to rest her hand a bit. When she returned, she noticed that the line had gotten longer. The first person in the line she met was a tall woman. She handed over a book and before Nenene was about to sign, she asked the woman a question.

"Who do you want me to make this out to?" Nenene inquired politely.

"This is for my sister. She into this type of stuff. I would never read such a thing."

"What's wrong with my book?" Nenene asked as her anger was starting to boil up.

"There's nothing but gay stuff in it."

The bodyguards sensed a confrontation was about to develop and one of them asked Nenene, "Do you want us to move her out of here?"

Nenene, who never ran away from a confrontation and in fact secretly enjoyed it, told them not to do anything. "No there's no need, for I'm going put her in her place."

"And what place is that? San Francisco? Sorry, unlike you or my sister, I don't care to taste the rainbow."

Nenene was beginning to get furious with the woman and she told her, "Look, you homophobic bitch, the only thing you will taste is my fist! You may or may not like my work and that's fine, but you have no right to insult me like that. You don't know anything about me, so how could you make such a statement? What really bothers me is that you insult your own sister the same way. I feel sorry for your sister."

The woman didn't like that comment one bit and retorted, "I feel sorry that you can't get yourself a man, I mean a REAL man, not some fake imitation like Mui Maggie, who doesn't know how to be a woman." Apparently, the woman knew a few people in the writing circle.

By then Nenene's face turned a fiery red and her eyes gave the other woman a death stare lividly. She left her seat and inched closer to the woman's face looking up at her with the same glare.

"You listen to me, bitch! My Maggie is more of a woman than you'll ever be and more of a man than you'll ever get!" Nenene growled, not noticing the Freudian slip she just made. Unfortunately the other woman, the journalists, reporters and most everyone else in the room did.

"YOUR Maggie? Heh, I knew it all along," the woman said with a distasteful smirk on her face.

Nenene finally realized that she had inadvertently come out. Her face stayed red for a different reason now. She sat back down on her chair and her face started to turn pale, shocked at what she had unintentionally done. It didn't help that all of this was being televised. By then, the reporters and journalists were blasting her with questions about her relationship but it all went in one ear and out the other. To her, they sounded like the adults in the _Peanuts_ cartoon. She was in her own world realizing and dreading the ramifications of her actions, most importantly thinking how Maggie would react to this, fearing that she might lose her from all of this. That part, she dreaded more than anything else.

While all this was going on, Nenene was saying to herself, _'I'm so sorry Mags, I've very sorry, sweetie,'_ as warm tears began to roll down her face.

***


	6. The Finish Line?

Chapter 6: The Finish Line?

It was yet another game of Majide and Anita simply wanted to get it over with. This was despite the fact she had such a big lead that basically she had already won - but since the show loved to humiliate the contestants as much as humanly possible, it continued on regardless. Called "Don't Lose Your Marbles", the object of the game was to place contestants on top of a pillar with marbles underneath their feet. Initially this pillar would start low - about 5 feet high - but eventually it will be raised to as high as 12 feet.

During the contestant's time atop the pillar, the area below was covered with white foam to cushion any falls. There was also a small shower near the area so that the contestant could wash off the foam… but a simple fall from a pillar into some sticky foam simply wasn't enough for the game show. All of the contestants, prior to their 'marble' ordeal, were required to go into the 'testing round'; a centrifuge machine called 'The Spin Cycle.' Used in training NASA astronauts and Air Force pilots, the machine was capable of spinning up to 9Gs - enough force to make someone pass out. The contestant would have to stand this force in the machine for 8 seconds, which was more than enough time to let this happen. If the contestant passed out anytime during the spin, than he/she was eliminated.

After Hamada explained the rules, the four contestants one-by-one climbed into the Spin Cycle. Only the middle-aged man passed out, which immediately eliminated him. Thus it was only the three remaining contestants who climbed up each of the pillars to delicately balance atop the marbles. As the pillars slowly rose, each contestant tried to stand as still as a statue. Anita and the other female contestant managed this just fine; however the male contestant was barely staying balanced, wobbling and gyrating like his dear life was on the line. As the pillars reach to their full heights, this man finally succumbed to gravity and fell off, landing on the foam. No more than three seconds later, this man screamed something incoherent and sprinted to the shower. Anita and the other contestant started to get more nervous; it was clear that there was something special in the foam.

The two remaining contestants stood on the platform for more than three minutes, motionless. Anita was quietly amazed that the other woman could stand so still, but what she didn't know was that this particular contestant was also a Yoga teacher, using all the amazing balance of her art. Eventually however, inevitably, the other contestant's legs started to get weaker, and she too fell. Once again, as this unlucky woman touched the soft foam she promptly began screaming in pain, and she too wasted no time in rushing towards the shower. Anita was the winner once again.

Standing on top of a small crane, Hamada congratulated Anita heartily. "Well! Once again – congratulations! You are really starting to impress me…"

"Thank you." Anita weakly mustered, trying not to talk too much in fear of landing on the hazardous foam. Hamada continued,

"Also, since you've won all of the games here, you also qualify for the final game, the obstacle course! How does that feel?"

"Great," she muttered, "Now can I get down?"

"Sure..." said the cheery presenter with a devilish grin. Quick as a wink, he pulled out a rather big marble from his pocket and threw it right at her feet.

"Owwww! Why you...AAAHHH!"

Staggering, her balance lost completely, Anita toppled straight into the foam. As she landed on the mysterious foamy substance, her body started to feel like it was burning. The foam had Menthol and Methyl Salicylate in it! (The same stuff they use in heat rubs like Bengay, Deep Heat, and Tiger Balm.) Yelling, Anita immediately leapt out of it and made a bee-line to the makeshift shower, hitting the spray button and roundly cursing both the host and the show, "That repulsive, diabolical jerk…! Just wait 'til the show is over!"

* * *

A few hours after the traumatic incident, the restaurant was closed, and Leroy, Sachiko, and Tyrone were busy cleaning up. Michelle came downstairs with her normal clothes on, less shaken than before, but still traumatized. After a few seconds, she was noticed, and Leroy and Sachiko looked at each other. Not a word was spoken. Apparently reading his mind, Sachiko nodded once and left the room, giving them that remained some needed privacy to talk.

Leroy spoke up first. "Look - I just wanna apologize to ya fo' what happened earlier today. If I hadda known it woulda turned out like this, I woulda neva' allowed it."

"I understand. I'm at fault as well, because… well, I did agree to it. I was just as naive as you were about this. We're both responsible."

"Yeah… that's true… but I'm more responsible for talking you into this! I can't fix what happened to the past, but I won't allow this teh happen again. Maybe this won't make It up, but I got sumthin' that will take care of yo' otha' problem."

"What's that?"

"I got some food leftover from today that I can give ya for yo' friend's birthday. Matta' o' fact, I like to bring it ova' ma'self."

Michelle cheered slightly. "That's great! The more the merrier I say - if you can, bring your wife and your son along as well. It's a surprise party so we have to arrive… _nonchalantly_. She's not supposed to know."

"Well somebody gotta watch Rei, so I'll just leave Sachiko here. Me n' ma son will come."

"That will be fine."

"Good. Now since I'mma man of ma' word, I'mma pay you as well."

Michelle glowed. "Great! So we must have made some money today?"

"Hell yeah girl, we made some mad bank today! About over 200,000 yen!" (That's over $1,700 US dollars in 2007.)

Tyrone and Sachiko overheard them and they came to the cash register. "Are you serious?" they said in unison.

"As serious as death and taxes! This takes care of the loan we borrowed. If we keep on getting sales like this, we'll take care of the rent in no time!"

"That's great! Now I can finally get that Sony Playstation 3!" Tyrone exclaimed.

"Now don't jump the gun son, we still needa pay off a few bills."

"Still, this calls for a celebration!" Sachiko elated.

"Well me and Tyrone are going to Michelle-san's place tonight for the birthday party. You can't come because somebody's gotta watch Rei."

"Actually, Rei's still up. She can't fall asleep."

"Well that's even betta'!" But he wasn't done yet. "So tell me sumthin' folks, are we the greatest?"

"Sho' Nuff!" Sachiko and Tyrone said in unison. Michelle didn't understand what was going on.

"Are we the funkiest?"

"Sho' Nuff!"

"Are we the tastiest?"

"Sho' Nuff!"

"Are we the baddest mo-fo, low-down, around this town?"

"Sho' Nuff!" (This time Michelle joined in.)

"Well who are we?"

"Sho' Nuff!"

"Who are we?" he emphasized.

"Sho' Nuff!"

"I Can't Hear You!"

"Sho' Nuff!"

"That's right! Sho' Nuff's Chicken and Waffles! The best chicken and waffles in all of Tokyo!" Leeroy, naturally failed to mention that it was the ONLY chicken and waffles restaurant in Tokyo. "Now let's git some of our food and bring some of our coupons. Who knows, we might get some returning customers."

Tyrone was getting excited about going to the party, "A'ight pop. I need to put on something nice!"

"A'ight boy, but hurry up! We don't want to be late and I don't want to food to be too cold!"

Shortly afterwards, the excited group were striding down the street, offerings of food steaming in their hands.

* * *

"Welcome back to Majide! And now… it's time for our final game; the obstacle course! As usual, our obstacle course consists of four difficult challenges. Our contestant must finish all the challenges in four minutes or less. The first challenge is called 'What's Buggin' Ya?' and requires our contestant to put three giant Hissing cockroaches in her mouth. With those bugs still there, she then has to ride a tricycle on top of a smelly, slimy surface to the finish line!" Anita felt like she wanted to throw up. "The contestant will then spit out the bugs into a cup! Those bugs must be living or else the game is over."

"After that comes the second challenge - 'The Black Box'! As you can see, it's a giant box 10 feet long and 7 feet high, totally dark inside! Viewers can see inside with our night vision camera. All's our contestant's need to do is run through the box…. but I must warn you! It's not as easy as it sounds…" he ended with his wicked smile. That sure didn't make Anita feel any better. Hamada smirked, "My suggestion to you is to run as fast as you can. Stopping will only make it worse."

"When you get out the box, you will encounter the third obstacle. It's none other than our infamous 'Run for Your Life!' You will run through a small maze with two pitbulls chasing after you. When you are out of the maze when you see a small gate with a door - close this behind you and the dogs won't be able to bite!"

Anita's face paled. "T-two pitbulls?" She said nervously.

"Yep, two pitbulls!" Hamada lowered his voice conspiratorially. "We used to use a young tiger way back, but unfortunately things went a touch wrong... anyhow, back to the game! If you finish the third obstacle, then we finally come to the last challenge; 'The Death Pool'. It's a 10-feet pool filled with Piranhas and Stonefish. You must quickly - and I really do mean quickly! - swim through the pool to reach the finish line. If you do all of this within 4 minutes, then you win one million yen!"

Anita's eyes bulged wide open when she heard about 'The Death Pool'. She couldn't believe that even the producers of _this_ gameshow would go _that_ far. "Are you ready?"

She nervously ducked her head in 'yes'.

"Okay… then ready!" Hamada raised his arm. Anita tensed. "Set!" The gameshow host grinned evilly and slashed his arm down. "GO!"

Anita was at the first obstacle in a flash, quickly grabbing the cockroaches from a cup. She had to seriously block out of her mind how disgusting it all was. Closing her eyes, she put the cockroaches in her mouth, and then she leapt onto the tricycle. The floor was green, smelly, and slimy, which made riding said tricycle far more difficult that it sounded at the time - she couldn't ride too fast or else she'd slip and fall, and she couldn't ride too slow or else her time would run out. She tried peddling faster, but the wheels simply spun out on the slick surface, providing no traction. After tipping onto the nasty substance once, Anita gave up on the peddles and just used her feet, which worked much better. She was able to get through the course in less than a minute and spit out those ghastly cockroaches. The nasty taste out of her mouth lasted longer!

Still spluttering a little, Anita raced towards the second game - the mysterious 'Black Box'. Taking Hamada's suggestion as gospel, she increased her speed to a flat out sprint… only to find out that it really wasn't a very good suggestion. About a second after she entered the blackness there was a snapping noise, then a sharp pain in her left toe. The next instant that snapping noise was everywhere, and pain multiplied all over her body. On her shins, her arms, and even on her fingers. She was literally screaming in pain with the heartless audience laughing in the background at her. Stumbling into the light, she saw the culprits - rat traps. The floor in the Black Box was literally covered with rat traps! Yanking them off took time, and she was still in serious pain. Even that didn't stop the audience from laughing at her. By then she was totally pissed with the audience, the show, and with Hamada.

Blocking out all the pain in her body, she threw herself at the third challenge. Running the maze was hardly any problem - it was easy to outrun and outsmart the dogs. For once, she went through a challenge without any problems.

And finally, she reached it. The final challenge. The Pool of Death. At first Anita was terrified, but suddenly a strange feeling of detachment came over her. Setting her pain aide, she took a few steps back and ran as fast as she could. At the pool edge, with a mighty leap, she jumped, sailing clear across the water and landing neatly across the finish line marked on the other side. A rippling silence fell over the audience - an awestruck hush. Even Hamada was amazed! Hisame, by contrast, jumped out of her seat and shouted for joy.

Hamada cleared his throat and looked slightly disbelieving. "Eeer,,, Congratulations! Yes, Congratulations! You won one million yen!"

Totally amazed at what she had done, the news she had cleared all of the obstacles shoved the pain from the rat-traps to the back of her mind. Anita started jumping for joy. This was a tactical error. Unfortunately, while she was jumping, she landed on a puddle and slipped sideways, falling into the pool. The piranhas wasted no time. Ferocious teeth latched on. Luckily, her fall had avoided the Stonefish's dorsal fins, otherwise she would have been poisoned.

Hisame started to scream. "Oh my God, somebody save her!"

Hamada too began to panic, "Somebody help her, quickly!"

* * *

It was evening, and Maggie was glum and tired. She'd saved somebody's life, but all she got out of it was a crummy cupcake. After all her efforts she had finally appeared at the party, frustrated and miserable (not to mention worried), and all for nothing. Today was supposed to be the surprise party but the surprise had ended up being on her! She had nothing for Nenene.

She was so miserable that she didn't want to read; instead she turned on the TV. The machine sparked to life, by luck or providence, on the E! TV Japan channel. Little did Maggie know that this twist of fate was going to give her an even bigger surprise.

"…and the biggest news today in the Book world is the unintentional outing of Sumerigawa Nenene. During one of her book signings today, she confirmed long-time rumors of her lesbian relationship with noted crimefighter Mui Maggie."

Maggie blinked, stunned. Nenene. They were out. Her mind raced wildly. How could the author have done that? She'd trusted her. It wasn't much of a secret to those who _knew_ Maggie, of course, but it was quite another thing to be outed in public without her consent. Maggie was still stunned. Nenene had betrayed her trust.

"Why Nenene, why?"


	7. Surprise!

Finally I got the story done! I can be proud of myself, I finally got a long story completed. I know it took me three years, but at least it's done.

I'll be doing other stories, especially my Kannazuki no Miko story, but I plan to do another RoD story sometime in the near future, base on the RP game I'm currently playing. I really want to do one a year after the final episode.

Again, thanks for all those who followed this story! - Mandy

* * *

Chapter 7: Surprise!

It was late at night and Maggie was very upset. First her planned party had been ruined; now her private life was also in tatters. She was emotionally hurt, and there was only one way she knew how to deal with that; retreat. She opened the door to her small closet under the stairs, squeezed her tall body inside, and shut herself away from the world.

Maggie's isolation didn't last long. About thirty minutes later Anita arrived at the apartment with her partner Hisame. The youngest paper sister did not look well. She was bandaged up, almost like a mummy, but remarkably her injuries appeared to be minor flesh wounds- nothing serious. The piranhas had only nibbled skin, quickly ceasing even that after tasting the disgusting goop left from first obstacle. Anita – not to mention the game show itself – had been extremely lucky no one had died.

Nenene's apartment was unusually dark and quiet.

"Hello? Is anybody home?"

There was no reply.

"It looks like no one is here, Ani-chan," Hisami replied.

"You might be right…" Anita said doubtfully, before stopping abruptly at some noises near the stairs. Anita and Hisami looked at each other. Who else could be in there but Maggie? Opening that small door, Antia saw Maggie sitting with her head hanging low, looking very stressed and depressed.

"Ma-nee, what's wrong with you?" she asked with concern.

"Everything," she said in despair. "This party, our relationship, my gift. Everything."

Anita was sympathetic. "I know that the party hasn't gone the way you wanted it, but what does that have to do with your relationship with sensei?"

Maggie, trying to hold back simmering anger, responded with uncharacteristic sharpness. "Well, now everybody on this planet knows about me and Nenene."

Anita and Hisami were shocked. "Huh? Are you serious?"

"Very much. Nenene talked about our relationship at one of her book signings."

"That makes no sense!" Anita exclaimed. "Why would she do something like that? That's so not like her!"

"It was unintentional, but it doesn't matter, it's all on TV now. A lot of people have been calling my cell, asking me questions. I eventually had to turn my phone off."

"I'm so sorry Maggie-san," Hisami comforted her, "but you should come on out of that closet now - it's not so bad out here!"

The joke sailed straight over the head of a still brooding Maggie, who simply unfolded herself out of her bolthole and stretched. Only then did she get a good look at Anita's physical state, and her shock was obvious.

"What happened to you?" She fretted, her own worries forgotten. "You're all bandaged up."

"I was on that game show - Majide." That sentence alone made the notoriously detached Maggie cringe. Anita winced at the likely affect her next words would have. "And I fell into a pool full of piranhas.".

Maggie was stunned. "Oh my God! Are you alright? How did you manage to leave the hospital? _Piranha bites?_"

"No! No! It's fine! All's I got were flesh wounds. It was the rat traps that caused the most damage…" Anita trailed off.

Maggie's eyes practically bugged out. "What?" she said. "Rat traps? Piranhas? What?" The tall paper sister was truly shocked, even though her docile demeanor showed very little. Anita didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"You can see it all next week on 'Majide'. More importantly, however, I have some good news and some bad news for you."

"…what's the good news?"

"I won one million yen!" she squeaked.

Maggie smiled, although it looked a little forced. "That's great! Well then, maybe it's not too late to go get some stuff for the party."

Anita looked slightly uneasy. "Um... well… the bad news is I won't get the money until two weeks from now."

Maggie felt sad a bit at first, but that was secondary compared to her sister's condition. "Well, all that matters is that you're alive and well."

"I got some money from my allowance," Hisami pitched in, "maybe I can help you guys get some stuff for her birthday. It's not much but at least it's something."

Hisami made a good amount from her writings… but as she was underage, her parents had wisely decided to place most of it in a trust. Until the age of 18, then, the young author was forced to depend on her parents for money.

Maggie gave her a small smile. "Well, it's better than nothing. Thanks."

"No problem!" Hisami cheerfully smiled.

As they were preparing themselves to get some things for the birthday, they heard a knock coming from the front door. Anita opened it and saw Michelle with Leroy, Sachiko, Tyrone and Rei, carrying boxes of food with them.

Anita looked surprised. "Mi-nee?"

"Hey there sis! I hope the party didn't end already, 'cuz we got some food!" The blonde dizzily cheered, holding her box in front of her like a trophy. She didn't seem to notice her sister's bandages. Her irrepressible cheer brought smiles to Anita and Hisami's faces.

Maggie, however, was a bit surprised. "Where did you get all the food from?" she asked.

Leroy immediately butted in. "From Sho Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles, the best Chicken and Waffles restaurant in town!"

"It's the _only_ Chicken and Waffles restaurant in town…!" his sighing wife remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Sachiko, do you have to ruin everything?" he whined back.

"_I_ ruin everything?" she retorted with a bit of a sneer. Maggie chose this moment to intervene, before the argument got heated..

"Errr, who are you guys?" she said plaintively.

"Oh, I fo'got to introduce ma'self. Ma' name is Leroy Jenkins and this is ma' wife Sachiko, and these are ma' kids, Tyrone and Rei."

Sachiko and Rei bowed but Tyrone said, "Yo' wazzup!" Leroy smacked him at the back of his head.

"Ouch! Jesus!" Tyrone said, rubbing the back of this head.

"Boy that's not tha' propah way of greetin' people! That's not what I taught ya, ya knucklehead!"

All this, of course, served to draw Anita's attention to Tyrone. "Oh no, he's here." Anita grumbled. He happened to be a classmate of Anita and Hisame. Tyrone in return noticed the two girls.

"Hey… is that Anita-san?" he said. He came out of the hallway and into the room to take a closer look. "Dang! What happened to you? He said, surprised to see her all bandaged up. Sadly, he seemed to think it was funny. "You're more bandaged up than a mummy! You know Halloween has just gone past, don't you Anita-san?"

His laughter annoyed Anita very much.

"Oh shut up!" she yelled, and then punched him in the stomach. Tyrone doubled over, holding his stomach and grimacing from the pain. Anita surreptitiously shook her hand. The punch had caused more pain to her wrapped knuckles… but it still felt good to give him that one. Anita and Hisami both sniggered at the young boy.

"Just wait 'til school time..." he gritted with pain.

"See son? That's what happens when you don't show propah respect ta' people!" Leroy harangued.

Before things went further, Maggie signaled everyone to come in. Instantly they did so and laid the boxes down on the dining table. These were full, upon opening with various traditional Southern African-American cuisines. Maggie couldn't figure out what half of them were!

"Uh, what kind of food is this?" she asked, puzzled.

"It's soul food, man!"

Maggie frowned heavily. "I'm not a man, I'm a woman."

Leroy felt very embarrassed and ashamed now, "Oops... Sorry."

Maggie didn't let it bother her at all. "It's okay, I'm used to it."

Sachiko said, "It's rather unique here in Japan, but they are very common dishes in the Southern area of America."

"Oh I see." Maggie didn't have much to say in reply to that, although deep inside she was very worried that Nenene wouldn't like it. She looked at Leroy and Sachiko and was curious; clearly neither of them was from Tokyo. "So… where did you learn to cook like this?" she asked.

"Well I'm from Mississippi and ma' wife's from Okinawa. We lived in Atlanta with our kids until two years ago, when we moved here." Leroy explained.

"Oh I see." Came Maggie's response yet again.

"You don't say much, do you?" Leroy inquired.

Maggie looked embarrassed and then wordlessly shrugged. Luckily, Michelle came to her rescue. "Actually Jenkins-san, she was a lot worse." Anita and Hisami nodded their heads in agreement.

"She musta been da life of da party!" was Leroy's response.

The rather sensitive Maggie took the teasing poorly. Sachiko cut in before her husband could give any more offense. "Don't let it get to you ma'am, he LOVES to talk." she sighed.

"And what's wrong with that?"

"You talk more than most women I know!"

"And you whine more than a baby!"

As they started to argue once again, Michelle decided to nip it in the bud much earlier than before.

"STOP IT!" she yelled, loudly. "There's no need to be fighting! It's a birthday party - let's have some fun while we wait for Sensei, OK?"

The two love-birds stopped and looked sheepish.

"Uh, who exactly is Sensei?" Leroy asked timidly.

"Sumerigawa Nenene, a well-known author."

Apparently the family knew who she was. In fact they seemed mesmerized at the sound of her name. Especially Rei - the young lady had just started reading Nenene's books.

"_The _Sumerigawa Nenene?" she asked.

"Yep!" Michelle responded, pointing to a picture of her on the wall.

"Wow! I really like her books. In fact, I'm reading one of them right now!" Rei said.

"Well that's great - then you'll be glad to meet her when she arrives."

"Until you find out how much of a pain in the butt Sensei is…" Antia muttered, just loud enough for Michelle to hear her.

"Anita-chan!" Michelle scolded.

"What? It's true!" Anita snapped back.

While they were waiting for Nenene, Anita, Michelle, and Hisami mingled with the guests while Maggie listened to the conversations. The taller woman soaked everything in, but didn't say much, typical of her nature. There was music in the background and the party had a lively vibe to it thanks to Leroy's personality. He was telling tons of stories, to which everybody was listening with interest.

About twenty minutes later, Nenene finally turned up. After the farce that was the book signing incident, she had hid for a while at an undisclosed location, trying to arrange a way to secretly get back to her apartment. The news had caught enough attention that there was an inconvenient pack of people waiting for her outside the building. Fortunately, her plan worked; she was able to disguise herself enough to drive an ordinary-looking rental car back to her apartment without problems.

At the sound of someone trying to unlock the door using their keys, Anita hit the light switch. When Nenene finally got in and closed the door behind her, it was to a quiet darkness. She turned on the lights.

"Surprise!" everybody shouted, totally frightening Nenene for a bit. After she got over it, she unleashed her trademark anger on everybody.

"What's the big idea of scaring me like that, huh?" she spat. "You know I don't like surprises!"

The paper sisters, by now used to Nenene's random rages, took it in their stride. "But sensei, you look so cute when you're angry," Michelle teased while hugging her. Nenene was not pleased…

"Get off me woman!" The author snapped, pushing the clingy blonde off. Everybody else was silent, puzzled as to what to do next. They didn't have to worry, since the author had everything under control.

"Well? Aren't you going to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me?" she demanded.

Everybody blinked, shrugged, and started to sing. Nenene smiled, looking around expectantly. To her surprise, no birthday cake was forthcoming.

"Hey... no cake?"

Everyone was panicking by now, especially Maggie, but Anita thought fast. "Umm… I got a gift for you?"

Nenene looked at her with surprised scepticism. "Really?" The author would have thought she was the last of all people would get given a gift by the youngest paper sister.

"Yeah it's a brand new car!" Anita exclaimed, nervous.

Nenene had a beaming, incredulous smile on her face. "Really?" she exclaimed. Michelle had crashed her car a couple of months previously, leaving her without one. However something was clearly not right. "How so? You're not old enough to drive."

"Well... I actually won it at a game show, 'Majide'."

Nenene's eyes nearly popped out. "What? You went to that crazy game show? No wonder you're in bandages! I thought that someone gave you an ass-kicking you deserved."

"Ha ha, very funny…" Anita grumbled.

"So where is it?" Nenene asked excitedly.

"It's right here…" She pulled out a small Matchbox car and handed it over. Nenene looked at it. "Is... is this some kind of joke?"

"Not really. I did win one million yen, but that won't come until two weeks from now."

Nenene placed the car down on the tabletop very, very carefully. Her face was completely blank. Michelle stepped in to see if she can calm her down.

"We got you food, sensei!" she carolled, pointing to the food on the table.

Nenene walked over to took a closer look. She was baffled at what she saw. "...what is this?"

Leroy stepped in once again, "This is yo' birthday food, courtesy of Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles!"

"And who are you?" she asked with a disdainful look, not liking the way he came up to her.

"I'm Leroy Jenkins, ownah of Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles and I'm sure you'll like what we brought for yo' birthday today. We have some chicken, some waffles, some of our world famous Honey Bun biscuits, some ham hocks, some neckbones with collard greens, some red beans and rice, some mac n' cheese, some mash potato, and ma' favorite, a bucket of chit'lings."

Nenene looked at him like he was crazy, and she was probably right. "Who eats this stuff?"

"About 200 customers today! Thanks to Michelle-san of course!" he and Michelle both grinned. Sachiko had a scowling look on her face. The unique cuisine didn't please Nenene one bit.

"Seriously Leroy-san, I don't know about this cuisine, it might make me 20 pounds heavier before the night is over? I appreciate your gratitude and all, but I wouldn't mind if there was a birthday cake."

Everybody got nervous again, and Maggie hesitantly grabbed the cupcake from the kitchen. It had a single candle on top.

"Uh… H-h-here's your b-b-birthday cake," she nervously replied.

Nenene couldn't believe it. THAT was her birthday cake? First the Matchbox car, then the greasy Soul Food... and now... it was the icing on the cake, pun intended.

At first it started to look like Nenene was going to get mad… but this was the final straw. Instead of rage, there was only the deep desire to break down. "Mags, can I see you in our room?" She said, trying not to cry.

"Sure Nene."

Safe from prying eyes, Nenene cried her heart out, letting out everything she had suffered during her rough day.

"This has been a cruddy day for me," she sobbed while crying on her lover's shoulders.

"I understand very well. It's been bad for me too."

She continued crying on her partner's shoulders for the next five minutes while trying not to make too much noise.

"I can't believe everything has gone wrong, and it had to be on my birthday."

"Well… we can't have all our days go right all the time." Maggie told her, speaking needed words of wisdom.

"Yeah, but not on a day like this."

"Well, you know, the day isn't over! We've still got a party going on, and we can still make the best of it- both of us."

Nenene lifted her head from Maggie's shoulders and smiled. "You're right. I guess I need to make the most of it. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Nenene went further, giving Maggie a soft and gentle smooch - which Maggie returned. It then became a full-out kiss that lasted quite a bit. When they finished, they just smiled at each other.

"Now how do you feel?" Maggie asked.

"Much better. I'm ready for the party again."

Maggie smiled and they went back to the dining room. As soon as they got back, everybody looked at them.

"Are you okay?" Anita asked.

"I'm fine. " Nenene said. "I just needed some time with Maggie-chan. Besides that, this is a party isn't it?"

Nobody said a word until Leroy spoke up. "Yes it is."

"Well then, put on some music and let's eat!" Nenene said with sudden enthusiasm.

There were a few 'alrights' from the crowd- they were happy to see Nenene in a good mood. Leroy started to explain to Nenene what some of the foods were. About five minutes later, a doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Hisami said, looking through the peephole. She saw two female officers, one big and blond, the other skinny with glasses The blond cop was holding a box.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Officer Suzushiro with Officer Kikukawa' we've got something for Sumiregawa-sensei!"

Officer Suzushiro was loud enough for Nenene, the guests, and practically everybody within a 30 foot range to hear.

"Go ahead and let them in." Nenene said to Hisami. She nodded and opened the door. With the way the officer was holding her burden, the youngster assumed that it was a cake.

"Konnichi-wa Sumiregawa-sensei, how's the party going?" said Officer Kikukawa with a bow.

"Okay for now. It stated off a little bad, but now everything is fine."

"Well that's good to hear. Our shift just ended and I was afraid that we would betoo late, but apparently we weren't."

Officer Suzushiro placed the box on the table, right next to the collard greens. There was limited space, but she was able to make some. Then she noticed the Jenkins family, especially Tyrone. "Well if it isn't Mr. Rock-star Jinkies Tyrell."

"My name is Jenkins Tyrone, and it's rap, not rock you mushmouth!"

The officer quickly got agitated and spat, "I don't know what a marshmouth is, but it doesn't sound good. You better not talk to me like that. I'm a policewoman and I'll put your butt back in the hammer."

"It's slam-" Leroy quickly covered his mouth up and apologize for his son. "Sorry about that Officer Suzushiro, he's just had a rough day."

"Well I'll make his day rougher! I'll-"

"Stop it Haruka-chan. It's not worth it. We're here to have fun."

Haruka sighed at her partner "Oh alright…"

"So how did you know about the party?" Nenene asked.

"Margie-san told us today." Officer Suzushiro said.

"Her name is Maggie-san," Nenene corrected.

"Yeah whatever… But listen, Maggie-san helped us catch a criminal earlier today."

"Really?"

"She sure did," Officer Kikakawa responded. " The criminal robbed an old lady and by using her paper powers, she caught him."

Nenene looked to her partner and smiled. "So you caught a criminal huh? That's my Maggie-chan. I'm proud of you." She followed it with a kiss to her lover's cheek.

Maggie was now red as a cherry. "It was nothing. Anybody in my position would have done it."

"Don't second guess yourself! What you did was amazing."

"It sure was. Anyhow, the old lady didn't have much money, so she gave her a cupcake. We knew that we had to get something better for Maggie-san…"

"So that's why we brought you your birthday suit," Officer Suzushiro said, not aware of her malapropism.

When she said that, everybody paused. They were shocked, actually and her partner wasn't pleased; she pulled out her megaphone.

"BIRTHDAY CAKE WOMAN! BIRTHDAY CAKE!" She blasted through the megaphone directly at Haruka's left ear, even though Haruka was only two feet away

"That's what I said!" she shouted back.

"No you didn't!" Everybody in the room responded. The blonde officer was about to argue back but she instead kept her mouth shut - for once.

"Anyhow, the cake is here so let's get started with the song." Nenene suggested.

"Right. Haruka-chan, do you have the candles?"

"Yes I do Yukino-chan," Haruka said as she pulled two small candles from the pocket. "We didn't know your real age, so we just got some regular ones."

"I'm now 24, but it doesn't matter. I'm just thankful that you got the cake for me." Nenene responded with a smile.

"We're happy to help out one of the best authors in Jamaica." Haruka responded

Nenene looked at her and said "Japan."

"That's what I just said!"

Nenene and everyone else just rolled their eyes, not bothering to correct her.

Yukino planted the candles in the middle of the cake and just when she was about to light it, someone knocked at the door.

"I'll get it!" Michelle responded in a singing manner. She looked through the peephole.

"It's Yomiko-sensei with Nancy-san and Junior-kun!" she cried giddily. Nenene's face drew a wide smile when she heard that her sensei had come.

"Well don't just stand there! Let them in!" she carolled back.

"O-kay!"

Michelle opened the door and let them in.

"Hi there everyone!" Yomiko said in a childish, yet polite manner. "I hope we're not too late for the birthday cake. I love birthday cakes!"

"Hi everyone." Nancy said in her usual, no-frills manner. Junior just politely bowed.

Everybody greeted the couple back, before the two caught sight of Anita bandaged up.

"Oh my Ani-chan, what happened to you?" Yomiko asked with a great deal of concern.

"Majide happened." She responded, not wanting to go any further.

"You mean you were on _Majide_?" Junior asked.

"Unfortunately… yes."

"Man, that must have sucked." Nancy said. "Did you at least win anything?"

"I won a million yen, but I won't get it until two weeks from now."

"Oh." Nancy said, and decided to not press any further.

"I won't be complainin' if I won a million yen! I'd be the happiest man in all of Tokyo!" Leroy said.

"Excuse me sir, but what is your name?" Yomiko asked.

"I'm Jenkins Leroy and I'm the one who brought all this food her fo' da party, except the cake. That's ma' wife Sachiko, ma' son Tyron and over there is ma' daughter Rei."

Nancy went over the table and examined the food. "Hey, this is Southern American soul food. Honey, remember having some of this when we were in Memphis?"

"Oh yes I sure do. I especially liked the Mississippi Mud Pie."

The couple had gone to Memphis to help Nancy regain part of her memory.

Leroy chuckled and told her, "Those're great, but we don't have them here today. However, we sure do have some chit'lings, some ham hocks, some collard greens, and especially some chicken and waffles, courtesy of Sho' Nuff's Chicken n' Waffles, the best chicken and waffles in all of Tokyo."

"You're beginning to sound like a used-car salesman." His wife chided. Leroy gave her a dirty look but it didn't go any further than that.

"So you're the one who was out there acting like a chicken earlier?" Nancy questioned. "We passed you by earlier."

Michelle blushed an embarrassed red while Leroy smiled, "It wuz Michelle-san- but she was able to get us a lot of customers today!" He purposely omitted the skimpy T-shirt and short-shorts part. Sachiko gave him a dirty look, while Tyrone snickered and Rei stared cluelessly.

"Oh really?" she said.

"Yeah, it was great!" Michelle responded, purposely omitting the sexual assault part.

"Well, we know it's not time yet to give you your gifts, but I think you can make an exception for this one." Nancy said as she pulled out two gift certificates.

Nenene had no clue what they were for. "What are those, Nancy-chan?"

"They are two gift certificates for three days and two nights to the Hotel Sakurai in Kusatsu Onsen. You even get your own private onsen in your room."

"It's lots of fun!" Yomiko said like a kid.

"Wow, that's really great. Thanks!" She said as she took the tickets from Nancy's hand.

"Trust me, you'll love it. We sure did." Nancy ended with a sly grin. Yomiko was now red as a cherry as well.

"Well it's now time to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Shall we?" Leroy said as he noticed how much Nenene wanted to have the cake.

"Yeah, finally!" said his son.

Yukino lit the candles on the cake and then Leroy started Happy Birthday.

"Okay then let's get it started. A one, a two. Happy Birthday to you…"

They sang both the Japanese and English version of the song, and Haruka managed to butcher both versions. After that Nenene blew the candle and everybody celebrated. For the rest of the night, nothing dramatic happened. It was nothing but fun times of eating, dancing, and partying.

* * *

The following weekend, during a somewhat chilly Friday night, Nenene was with Maggie at the hotel. They were in their outdoor private onsen, spending quality time together, enjoying the warm waters that offset the cool night.

"So how has it been so far Maggie-chan?"

Maggie was busy reading _Jane's World_, but she heard Nenene and put the book down on the side of the pool. "Great! The water is warm, the place is small and cozy, and I'm with the love of my life. I can't complain!" she ended with a smile. "So how are you doing?"

"Well besides my stomach still feeling a bit queasy, I'm doing fine. The massage was really great."

"That's good to hear. Maybe I should get one too. Your stomach is still not good?"

"Not totally. That's what I get for eating those chitterlings that Jenkins-san brought over," Nenene said with a disgusted look on her face. "Never again!"

Maggie chuckled. "Thank goodness I didn't eat any of them. Besides that, it was really good food. Jenkins-san sent me his recipe. I'm planning on making some after we return."

Nenene smiled back. "That's fine with me, as long as it not those chitterlings!" Both girls laughed and then Nenene got serious again. "But I do want to say something. I want to thank you and your sisters very much for going out of your way to have my birthday party. I'm really impressed at how much you girls really care about me." She was trying to say it without tearing up, but failed; one teardrop managed to travel down her cheeks.

Maggie blushed and showed a warm smile. "It really was nothing Nene. You know how much I care about you deeply."

Nenene smiled as she looked deeply into her lover's red-brown eyes. "I know, and I'm thankful for it. I'm also thankful for you being in my life."

She then inched closer to her lover and, as usual, Maggie blushed, but she was not nervous. Instead she was looking forward to it. As soon as she got close enough, she cupped her right hand on Maggie's check and lightly stroked it. Maggie responded with her own left hand stroking Nenene's cheeks. Now Nenene was blushing as she was enjoying the soothing touch of Maggie's large hands caressing her.

Finally she uttered softly, yet with a touch of seduction, "My Maggie."

"My Nenene."

And they closed in for their kiss. I think this will be a good time for us to leave them to their privacy? Well, enjoy your quality time together ladies.


End file.
